Thank you for your interest Mr. Chowdhury. UNHCR was established in 1950 with the mandate to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. We work in 123 countries all over the world. Our primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees so that individuals can seek asylum and find safe refuge in another state when they are facing systematic persecution or have a well-founded fear for their lives.

As the Mediterranean crisis has spread far beyond Syria, and to other continents, UNHCR has now taken a regional initiative titled the Special Mediterranean Initiative (SMI); you can find more details here – http://reporting.unhcr.org/node/9918.

UNHCR needs a total of USD 128 million for the Special Mediterranean Initiative up to the end of 2016. The donations are now being collected locally by UNHCR Bangladesh also, in our Standard Chartered Bank account. The funds will be linked directly to SMI through our headquarters financial management, and then be disbursed by UNHCR Headquarter to each region to help the population of 4 million refugees survive who are spread across Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Europe and Africa.

To answer your second question – the humanitarian aid that UNHCR offers are the ones that are best suited to the particular protection needs of the refugees, where each situation is always unique to its particular context. UNHCR’s technical expertise is in providing protection and assistance in emergencies and we are providing what is deemed as the most essential humanitarian needs that protect, at a minimum, the ‘right to life’ and dignity. There are minimum standards for humanitarian aid delivery, known as SPHERE (http://www.sphereproject.org/handbook/). All aid in emergencies is guided and prioritized according to SPHERE. Protection is sometimes confused with ‘security’. However, at UNHCR we understand protection as “protection of one’s fundamental rights”. This is what we seek to offer to the refugees, and we thank you for your interest in being a part of it.

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A Mounting Struggle To Survive

2 / Syrian refugee, Dayane, 24, holds her daughter Yemen, 5, who was severely burned in an accident with scalding water during a bombing raid in Yarbroud, Syria. The family fled to northern Lebanon six days after the accident but they could never afford treatment for Yemen. Six months on, the little girl is still in great physical pain, with some of her wounds unhealed, and she is still clearly traumatized. / UNHCR / Andrew McConnell

5/ Aysha, 5, stands outside the unfinished, abandoned building in Istanbul that has been her home for half a year. She lives here with her mother and 10 siblings. The majority of Syrian refugees live in urban settings, often sharing overcrowded apartments or abandoned buildings. / UNHCR / Shawn Baldwin

6 / Hussein, 21, has been displaced multiple times since fleeing Damascus, Syria, and now lives rough in the streets in Adana, Turkey. He makes a little money collecting plastic and washing windscreens, but barely scrapes by. It has become increasingly common for Syrians to be displaced multiple times, fleeing from village to village inside the country for months or years before finally leaving their homeland. When they arrive in exile, many find it difficult to get by. / UNHCR / Ivor Prickett

9 / Syrian refugees who have just completing the long and dangerous journey to Jordan receive juice and biscuits from a UNHCR staff member. New arrivals are transported from the border to a registration centre. The process of registration is crucial. It not only ensures that the displaced gain internationally recognized refugee status and legal protection in their host countries, but also provides new arrivals in desperate need of help with access to shelter, food and public services. / UNHCR / Jared Kohler

10 / Hundreds of Syrian refugees cross into Iraq at the Peshkhabour border crossing in Dohuk Governorate. Since the beginning of the crisis in 2011, UNHCR has registered more refugees faster than at any time in its history. / UNHCR / Galina Gubaeva

Italy/ Syrian refugees / Syrian refugees are rescued in the Mediterranean Sea by crew of the Italian ship, Grecale. They will be transferred to a larger vessel, fed and given medical treatment before being transported to the mainland. UNHCR / A. D’Amato / March 2014 Every year tens of thousands of people risk their lives by crossing the Mediterranean on overcrowded and often unseaworthy boats in a bid to reach Europe. Many are fleeing violence and persecution and are in need of international protection. Thousands die every year trying to make it to places like Malta or Italy’s tiny Lampedusa Island. It took the loss of some 600 people in boat sinkings last October to focus world attention on this humanitarian tragedy. Italy has since launched a rescue-at-sea operation using naval vessels, which have saved more than 10,000 people. Photographer Alfredo D’Amato, working with UNHCR, was on board the San Giusto, flagship of the Italian rescue flotilla, when rescued people were transferred to safety. His striking images follow. *** Local Caption *** The identities of the people in the photos must be protected.DO NOT PUBLISH NAMES OR PERSONAL STORIES OF THE PEOPLE IN THE IMAGES.

Italy / Mediterranean sea/ A Syrian mother sits on a deck of the Italian vessel, Verga, with her young children. They were rescued from a fishing boat carrying 219 people while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Libya. UNHCR / A. D’Amato / March 2014 Every year tens of thousands of people risk their lives by crossing the Mediterranean on overcrowded and often unseaworthy boats in a bid to reach Europe. Many are fleeing violence and persecution and are in need of international protection. Thousands die every year trying to make it to places like Malta or Italy’s tiny Lampedusa Island. It took the loss of some 600 people in boat sinkings last October to focus world attention on this humanitarian tragedy. Italy has since launched a rescue-at-sea operation using naval vessels, which have saved more than 10,000 people. Photographer Alfredo D’Amato, working with UNHCR, was on board the San Giusto, flagship of the Italian rescue flotilla, when rescued people were transferred to safety. His striking images follow. *** Local Caption *** The identities of the people in the photos must be protected.DO NOT PUBLISH NAMES OR PERSONAL STORIES OF THE PEOPLE IN THE IMAGES.

Italy / Mediterranean Sea / Two people rescued by the Italian Navy’s humanitarian operation share a thermal blanket on the deck of the Verga, the ship that will take them to the mainland. UNHCR / A. D’Amato / March 2014 Every year tens of thousands of people risk their lives by crossing the Mediterranean on overcrowded and often unseaworthy boats in a bid to reach Europe. Many are fleeing violence and persecution and are in need of international protection. Thousands die every year trying to make it to places like Malta or Italy’s tiny Lampedusa Island. It took the loss of some 600 people in boat sinkings last October to focus world attention on this humanitarian tragedy. Italy has since launched a rescue-at-sea operation using naval vessels, which have saved more than 10,000 people. Photographer Alfredo D’Amato, working with UNHCR, was on board the San Giusto, flagship of the Italian rescue flotilla, when rescued people were transferred to safety. His striking images follow. *** Local Caption *** The identities of the people in the photos must be protected.DO NOT PUBLISH NAMES OR PERSONAL STORIES OF THE PEOPLE IN THE IMAGES.

Lebanon/Syrian refugees/ Turbide/ Sharifa (left), 12, from the Syrian city of Homs, studies by the sheep pen in her tented camp in Turbide, Bekaa Valley. Her textbooks are in French, like many in Lebanese schools, and pose a challenge. But Sharifa enjoys learning. When she grows up, she wants to be a paediatrician./ UNHCR/ Lynsey Addario/ March 2014

Lebanon/Syrian refugees/ Faida: Seventy families live by the shell of an abandoned onion-processing factory, trudging through the mud in flip-flops. Many had to bail water from their tents after a rainstorm. They pay between US$50 and US$200 a month to live here in Faida, Bekaa Valley./ UNHCR/ Lynsey Addario/ March 2014

3 / Hundreds of Syrian refugees stream across the border into Jordan at a remote border point in the east. Many people crossing the desert into eastern Jordan are forced to pay smugglers hefty sums to take them to safety. Once refugees only paid smugglers to take them from the Middle East into Europe, now they must pay just to find their way out of Syria. / UNHCR / J. Kohler

Jenna, shows off her prized possession: a flowery dress. The kitchen where her family prepares their food is dirty and in disrepair. Half of Syrian refugees in Jordan live in inadequate housing. Jenna and her family receive food vouchers from the World Food Programme, but a healthy diet always remains a challenge. /UNHCR / J. Kohler / February 2014

Lebanon / Syrian refugees / A family of 25 refugees from Homs live in an underground garage in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. They gather garbage day and night to sell to recycling companies. Two of their 13 children under 11 go to school; three work full time. The rest spend their day in the garage./ UNHCR/ Lynsey Addario/ March 2014

Lebanon/ Syrian refugees/ Manhal, aged nine, and Ahmed, 11, brothers from the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, sell flowers by the sea in Byblos. They go to school by day, and work all evening. Their older brother doesn’t go to school at all. “I would if I could,” says Mohammed. “But who would help my father with the rent?”/ UNHCR/ Lynsey Addario/ March 2014)

For the first 18-months of his life, Ashraf grew up in the city of Homs as the violence escalated in Syria, forcing millions to flee their homes. When close relatives were killed, his family decided to flee to Lebanon and made their home in this settlement. UNHCR / A. McConnell / March 2014

Reema, a Syrian refugee, sits in the apartment where she lives with her husband and four children in Ramtha, Jordan. “There is never enough to make ends meet,” she says. After the family’s arrival, she sold her jewellery to survive. She can still hear the sound of shelling from across the border. /UNHCR / J. Kohler / February 2014

Jenna plays with her older sister, Rana, on a homemade swing outside her family’s rented apartment in Ramtha. Rana goes to school, but this courtyard is their world for Jenna and her other siblings. More than half of Syrian refugee children in Jordan are not at school. /UNHCR / J. Kohler / February 2014

A dozen Syrian refugee families in an informal settlement – a mix of tents and Bedouin-style shelters. More than 1,600 Syrian families live in tents outside Jordan’s formal camps, like Za’atri, as they search for work in rural areas. /UNHCR / J. Kohler / February 2014